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T.S.Wynkoop 
Christianity  and  Hindooism 


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Wynkoop,  T.  S. 
Christianity  and  Hindooism 


CHRISTIANITY  and   HINDOOISM. 


AN  ADDRESS 


Rev.    T.    S.    WYNKOOP, 


A   LETTER   FROM   Rev.   J.   WILSON. 


PKIKCBTOH 
•.REC.SEP   1  • 


NEW    YORK: 

BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS,  23  Centre  Street. 
1877. 


JTYCfT 

it) 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    HINDOOISM. 

An  Address  Delivered  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Church,  New   York,  by 
Rev.  T.  S.  Wynkoop. 

In  accepting  the  invitation  of  your  pastor  to  address  you  upon  the  subject 
of  our  missionary  work  in. India,  I  feel  myself  in  some  sort  discharging  a 
personal  obligation.  One  of  the  chief  discouragements  in  that  work  for  the 
last  few  years  has  been  the  want  of  funds,  due  to  financial  difficulties  in  this 
country ;  embarrassing  our  Board  in  all  its  operations,  rendering  serious 
retrenchment  necessary,  and  sometimes  threatening  to  cripple  our  missions. 
Missionaries  on  the  ground  feel  this  most  keenly.  An  order  for  retrenchment 
passed  in  the  rooms  of  the  Board  of  Missions  seems  to  the  members  of  the 
Board  a  safe  financial  policy,  and  to  many  good  men  at  home  the  only  wise 
and  prudent  course.  It  may  be  so.  But  it  looks  differently  to  the  men  from 
whom  the  money  is  withheld,  whose  chosen  enterprises  must  be  curtailed  or 
abandoned,  whose  wise  plans  for  the  future  must  be  postponed  perhaps  indef- 
initely, who  must  often  lose  even  the  fruits  of  past  success  because  they  may 
not  push  forward  to  secure  them. 

In  such  circumstances,  the  reports  of  great  efforts  made  by  this  church  to 
relieve  the  funds  of  our  Board,  and  the  munificent  gifts  of  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  congregation  in  times  of  special  difficulty,  have  endeared  your 
church  and  its  honored  pastor  as  by  a  tie  of  personal  gratitude  to  many  a 
missionary  and  in  many  a  mission  station.  We  have  felt  that  our  necessities 
were  remembered  here,  that  here  sympathy  was  taking  its  most  practical  form 
in  that  help  which  was  so  much  needed,  without  which  our  hearts  would  have 
been  still  more  saddened  and  our  operations  still  more  embarrassed  by  the 
necessity  of  yet  further  retrenchment.  I  speak  not  alone  for  myself,  but  for 
my  missionary  brethren,  when  I  thank  you  for  your  large  contributions,  often 
so  opportunely  given,  for  the  conspicuous  example  you  have  set  to  our  entire 
Church,  and  for  the  sympathy  and  prayer  with  which  your  gifts  have  been, 
consecrated. 

Within  a  few  years  past  India  has  been  brought  into  unusual  prominence  in 
the  thoughts  and  interests  of  the  Christian  world.  Distinguished  travelers, 
British  and  American,  have  visited  it,  and  their  letters  and  books  of  travel 
have  been  widely  read.     The  problems  connected  with  its  government  by 


4  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

Great  Britain,  and  'its  material  and  moral  progress  under  that  government, 
have  been  largely  discussed  in  the  best  magazines  and  reviews  of  the  day. 
Able  missionary  and  other  lecturers  have  described  its  scenery,  works  of  art, 
and  social  and  religious  customs,  before  large  audiences  throughout  the 
country.  The  splendid  pageantry  connected  with  the  visit  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  and  more  recently  with  the  proclaiming  of  the  Queen  as  Empress  of 
India,  has  attracted  the  attention  of  all  readers  of  our  newspapers.  Recent 
distressing  cyclones,  famines,  and  outbreaks  of  epidemic  diseases  have  touched 
the  sympathies  of  the  whole  world.  This  increasing  interest  in  India  and 
information  about  it  can  not  but  be  a  help  to  our  mission  cause,  as  it  brings 
India  so  much  more  within  the  circle  of  our  thoughts,  and  makes  us  more 
familiar  with  its  condition  and  necessities. 

Assuming,  then,  your  intelligent  interest  in  India  and  in  our  missions  there, 
I  wish  to  speak  first  of  the  chief  obstacles  which  Hindooism  opposes  to  Chris- 
tianity ;  then  of  certain  difficulties  which  beset  the  Christian  enterprise  arising 
from  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  its  introduction  into  India  and  relation  to 
the  government  of  the  country ;  and  finally  of  the  results  accomplished  by 
our  missions  and  the  outlook  for  the  future. 

The  first,  and  by  far  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  entrance  and  spread  of 
Christian  truth  in  India,  is  the  prevalent  philosophy  which  forms  the  staple  of 
the  thought  of  the  people.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  tendency  of  the  Aryan 
mind,  whether  in  India,  Greece,  or  modern  Europe,  has  always  been  toward 
Pantheism.  The  Brahmins  represent  that  tendency  in  its  least  modified  form. 
In  early  times  the  Aryan  ancestors  of  the  modern  Hindoos  were  doubtless 
Monotheists.  Three  thousand  years  ago,  when  they  first  appear  upon  the 
stage  of  history,  they  had  so  far  departed  from  the  primitive  faith  that  they 
were  worshipers,  according  to  the  Vedic  ritual,  of  the  Creator  as  symbolized 
by  the  powers  of  nature,  the  Sun-god,  the  Rain-god,  the  Fire-god,  the  God  of 
Night,  of  the  Dawn,  and  the  like.  A  few  Vedic  names  and  phrases  are  still 
in  use  ;  a  few  Vedic  hymns  are  still  chanted,  as  incantations  and  sacred 
formulas,  without  any  understanding  of  their  meaning.  Other  than  this,  the 
Vedas  bear  not  the  slightest  relation  to  the  thought  or  worship  of  the  modern 
Hindoos.  No  nation  ever  departed  more  widely  or  entirely  from  its  own 
original  sacred  writings.  A  Hindoo  reformer  has  lately  excited  -much  atten- 
tion in  the  leading  cities  of  Northern  India.  His  one  book  is  the  Vedic 
Scriptures,  and  his  one  object  to  bring  back  his  people  to  the  Vedic  faith  and 
worship.  No  Christian  missionary  meets  with  more  universal  and  determined 
opposition  than  he.  In  Benares  his  life  was  in  danger  at  the  hands  of  his 
fellow-pundits.  Very  many  of  the  people  regard  him  as  a  Christian  emissary 
in  disguise. 

This  great  change  of  religion  is  principally  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
Hindoo  philosophy,  the  rise  and  early  history  of  which  is  involved  in  consider- 
able  obscurity.     It  seems  most  probable  that  as  much  as  eight  hundred  years 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  5 

before  Christ,  men  of  deep  thought  and  austere  life,  by  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges  or  the  Saraswati,  laid  at  least  the  foundations  of  what  afterward  be- 
came the  Six  Schools  of  Hindoo  Philosophy.  Into  the  intricacies  of  these 
schools  it  would  not  be  profitable  to  enter.  Our  object  is  rather  to  note  the 
popular  thought  resulting  from  these  systems,  as  influencing  the  religion  of 
India  to-day. 

If  we  were  asked  to  name  the  two  conceptions  most  fundamental  to  all 
Christian  doctrine,  the  answer  would  be,  the  personality  of  God  and  the  indi- 
viduality of  the  soul  of  man.  God  is  ;  I  am.  He  is  the  Creator  ;  I  am  His 
creature.  Under  His  government  I  have  my  being.  Before  me  there  lies  an 
endless  existence,  which  is  supported  indeed  by  Him,  but  never  to  be  con- 
fused or  identified  with  Him.  The  fundamental  conceptions  of  Pantheism 
are  the  direct  contradictories  of  these. 

The  Hindoo  is  convinced  that  God  is.  His  mind  and  heart  are  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  Deity.  His  thinking,  more  than  that  of  perhaps 
any  other  people,  begins  and  ends  with  God  ;  but  not  in  the  sense  of  a 
personal  being.  God  is  Spirit  in  the  abstract ;  the  Vast  or  Infinite ;  the 
One-Without-a-Second,  that  is,  the  One  besides  whom  there  is  no  existence ; 
the  Unconditioned,  and  therefore,  in  any  higher  sense,  the  Unknown  and 
Unknowable.  To  conceive  of  Deity  under  the  form  of  person  or  ascribe  to 
God  personal  attributes,  is  to  limit  the  Absolute  and  Infinite.  Properly 
speaking,  God  is  That. 

The  Hindoo  will  use  terms  in  speaking  of  God  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  associate  only  with  the  idea  of  personality  ;  but  he  does  not  so  associate 
them.  Nothing  that  involves  either  action  or  passion  can  be  attributed  to 
God.  Divesting  our  words  of  all  thought  of  personality  we  may  conceive  of 
God  under  the  three-fold  form — of  unlimited  existence,  intelligence,  and  felicity. 
One  of  the  chief  names  applied  to  God  in  religious  conversation  is  a  com- 
pound word  in  four  syllables  uniting  those  three  conceptions.  God  is  the 
Infinite,  Eternal,  Being-Thought-Joy,  but  without  the  limitations  of  per- 
sonality. 

Besides  God  there  is  absolutely  nothing  of  which  Existence,  Thought,  or  Joy 
can  be  predicated.  If  there  were  anything  which  is  not  God,  then  God  would 
not  be  infinite.  All  which  really  exists  is  God,  and  whatever  is  not  God  has 
no  real  existence.  We  are  beyond  all  question  conscious  of  much  that  is  not 
God.  Here  the  extremest  idealism  comes  to  the  aid  of  the  pantheistic  argu- 
ment, and  declares  that  all  which  is  not  God  is  illusion,  phantasm,  deception. 
Two  categories  thus  embrace  all  objects  of  thought,  the  Real  and  the  Unreal. 
In  the  Real,  God  alone  is  placed.  Everything  that  is  not  God  falls  within  the 
Unreal. 

To  this  corresponds  the  Hindoo  idea  of  what  we  have  learned  from  the 
Christian  stand-point  to  call  creation.  God  is  the  cause  of  the  material  and 
spiritual  universe,   so  far  as  these  have  real  existence,  but  not  by  creation. 


6  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

All  that  exists  is,  if  we  may  so  speak,  a  projection  of  the  Infinite  Spirit.  It 
is  the  diffusion  of  the  Divine  Essence,  and  is  properly  not  material,  but  spirit- 
ual, since  that  Essence  is  spiritual,  not  material.  This  marks,  as  I  conceive, 
the  main  difference  between  Hindoo  Pantheism  on  the  one  side,  and  European 
and  American  Pantheism  on  the  other.  The  latter  is  predominantly  realistic, 
and  hence  material ;  while  the  Hindoo  is  idealistic  and  therefore  spiritual  in  its 
form. 

It  follows  from  these  principles  that  the  soul  of  man  is  God.  Its  concep- 
tion of  being  an  individual  existence  other  than  God  is  false  and  vain. 
To  escape  from  that  false  conception  and  its  practical  results  is  the  chief  end 
of  man.  The  constant  illustration  is  a  drop  of  water,  drawn  from  the  ocean 
by  the  sun's  rays,  now  floating  in  vapor,  now  falling  in  rain  upon  the  earth, 
absorbed  by  a  flower,  exhaled  again  and  re-formed  as  a  dewdrop,  passing 
through  phase  after  phase  of  existence,  but  all  the  while  an  essential  part  of 
the  sea  whence  it  came.  The  soul  is  eternal ;  drawn  from  its  resting  place, 
as  the  drop  from  the  ocean,  it  passes  in  transmigration  after  transmigration 
from  one  stage  of  existence  to  another  and  another,  higher  or  lower,  according 
to  an  invariable  necessity  which  requires  that  all  deeds  and  words  and 
thoughts  shall  receive  their  due  recompense  of  reward  or  punishment.  Our 
present  state  was  determined  by  what  we  did  in  previous  states  of  existence  ; 
and  what  we  now  do  will  determine  our  future  births.  Meanwhile  we  have 
lost  the  consciousness  of  our  divinity  and  come  under  the  power  of  the  un- 
real and  illusory.  And  the  misery  of  our  present  state  consists  in  our  two- 
fold bondage ;  first,  the  bondage  of  deeds,  whereby  we  are  compelled  to  pass 
from  one  stage  to  another  in  the  endless  round  of  transmigrations,  unable  to 
escape  the  inevitable  retribution  or  avoid  the  deeds  which  require  that  retribu- 
tion ;  and,  second,  the  bondage  of  ignorance,  which  holds  us  in  subjection  to 
the  illusory  and  prevents  us  from  rising  to  the  consciousness  of  our  true  origin 
and  nature. 

Hindoo  philosophy  teaches,  with  a  fine  instinctive  spirituality,  that  the  chief 
aim  of  man  is  the  attainment  of  salvation.  Health,  wealth,  honors,  pleasures, 
friends,  all  fall  under  the  category  of  the  unreal,  and  are  unworthy  the  atten- 
tion of  the  wise.  But  this  salvation  is  not,  as  we  understand  it,  deliverance 
from  moral  evil  and  its  effects,  together  with  the  perfect  development  of  the 
individual  soul  in  all  its  powers  and  capacities,  and  the  attainment  of  eternal 
happiness.  Salvation  is  liberation,  and  liberation  is  to  cut  off  the  long  suc- 
cession of  birth  after  birth,  to  escape  from  our  separate  existence  and  lose 
ourselves  in  God,  from  whom  we  came.  To  recur  to  the  illustration  ;  the 
rain-drop,  changing  from  place  to  place  and  form  to  form  as  the  very  sport  of 
nature,  attains  at  length  its  supreme  felicity,  when,  falling  from  a  cloud,  or 
flowing  with  a  multitude  of  other  drops  in  the  current  of  some  great  river,  it 
reaches  once  more  the  sea  and  is  at  rest.  So  for  the  soul  of  man,  its  highest 
good,  its  only  good,  is  to   merge  again  in  the  fullness  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  to 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  7 

attain  the  state  of  the  unconditioned,  to  lose  itself  in  the  ocean  of  Existence, 
Thought,  and  Blessedness. 

How  may  this  liberation  be  attained  ?  By  the  removal  of  that  false  concep- 
tion which  binds  us  down  in  the  realms  of  the  unreal  and  illusory;  so  that 
one  can  say,  "I  arh  the  Eternal,  Self-existent,  Infinite  God,"  with  the  same 
intuitive  apprehension  which  a  hungry  man  has  when  he  says,  ;'  I  hunger." 
He  who  has  attained  this  apprehension  has  no  longer  passion,  or  any  prompt- 
ing within  him  to  lead  to  action.  He  has  escaped  from  the  bondage  of  deeds. 
With  the  cessation  of  action  and  passion,  there  ceases  the  necessity  for  con- 
tinued existence,  in  which  the  measure  of  reward  and  punishment  may  be 
meted  out.  With  the  necessity  of  continued  existence  the  reason  for  future 
transmigrations  ceases.  It  remains  but  for  the  soul,  now  liberated  from 
bondage  to  the  material  and  unreal,  to  pass  away  forever  from  suffering. 
The  finite  has  again  become  the  infinite.  The  drop  has  merged  in  the 
ocean. 

We  can  not  enter  here  upon  any  extended  criticism  of  this  system  of 
thought.  You  will  observe  that  all  its  conceptions  of  God,  of  nature,  of 
man,  of  the  cause  and  nature  of  human  misery  and  woe,  and  of  the  way  in 
which  these  may  be  escaped,  are  false  and  misleading  in  the  highest  degree. 
Pantheism  is  not  even  a  religion,  properly  so-called;  since  there  can  be 
neither  worship  nor  service,  to  say  nothing  of  love  and  personal  devotion, 
where  there  is  no  personal  God. 

You  will  notice  that  in  this  system  there  is  no  place  for  morality.  Logically, 
Pantheism  knows  neither  right  nor  wrong.  If  God  be  the  only  existence  all 
that  takes  place  must  be  referred  to  God.  The  distinction  which  we  instinct- 
ively make  between  right  and  wrong  has  no  place  in  the  essence  of  things 
but  belongs  to  the  category  of  the  unreal.  It  is  true  that  righteousness  is 
better  than  unrighteousness,  but  neither  is  better  than  either  of  them.  Right- 
eousness must  be  rewarded,  hence  the  soul's  separate  existence  must  be  con- 
tinued and  its  liberation  postponed.  In  other  words,  piety  and  good  works 
prevent  salvation.  The  direct  and  necessary  effect  of  this  teaching  is  to  darken 
the  moral  sense.  The  conscience  of  India  has  been  immeasurably  debased  by 
this  system  of  thought ;  and  Pantheism,  if  it  fails  entirely  as  a  religion,  fails 
even  more  conspicuously  as  a  scheme  of  morals. 

The  highest  attainment  at  which  Pantheism  aims  is  to  lead  man,  entirely 
ignorant  of  the  living  and  true  God,  Creator  and  Moral  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse, knowing  nothing  of  the  essential  law  of  right  and  wrong  by  which  all 
sentient  beings  must  be  judged,  and  unconscious  of  his  guilt  and  moral  pollu- 
tion, to  pronounce  with  almost  inconceivable  spiritual  pride  the  words  :  "  I  am 
God."  The  highest  attainment  of  the  Hindoo  pietist  is  blasphemy,  and  with 
this  blasphemy  on  his  lips  he  dies. 

This  system,  which  is  so  destructive  to  all  right  thinking  on  religious  sub- 
jects,   and   subversive   of  the  very  foundation   of  true  morality,    forms   the 


Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

greatest  obstacle  to  Christianity  in  India.*  It  has  no  points  in  common  with 
Christianity.  It  furnishes  no  premise  on  which  a  Christian  argument  can  be 
founded.  There  is  no  logical  refutation  of  it.  The  appeal  to  common  sense 
is  made  in  vain,  since  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  system  is  the 
entire  untrustworthiness  and  falsity  of  that  consciousness  which  underlies  our 
common  sense.  The  appeal  to  science  has  its  base  cut  from  under  it,  since 
everything  but  spirit  is  unreal  and  delusive.  The  Hindoo  mind  distrusts 
material  science,  and  looks  at  modern  European  and  American  inventions 
and  applications  of  science  as  we  look  at  the  exhibitions  of  a  skillful  juggler. 
We  are  surprised  at  nothing ;  but  we  are  also  convinced  of  nothing,  save  the 
skill  of  the  conjurer  and  the  unreliability  of  the  testimony  of  our  own  senses. 
Just  to  the  extent  to  which  this  Pantheism  influences  the  thought  of  India, 
does  Christianity  find  the  Hindoo  mind  preoccupied  with  ideas  which  pre- 
clude its  very  entrance. 

We  come  now  to  notice,  as  a  second  great  obstacle  to  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  into  India,  the  vast  and  varied  system  of  Hindoo  idolatry.  At 
first  sight,  pantheism  and  polytheism  seem  irreconcilable  and  mutually  exclusive. 
On  the  contrary,  pantheism  furnishes  the  only  logical  and  satisfactory  ground 
for  poly  theism.  If  God  is  everything,  then  everything  is  God.  The  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  not  only  represent  God ;  in  a  sense,  they  are  God,  and  worship  paid 
to  them,  is  worship  paid  to  God.  Certain  mountains,  certain  rivers,  certain 
trees  are  regarded  as  possessed  of  special  sanctity.  Every  Hindoo  artisan,  at 
certain  seasons,  worships  his  tools,  the  farmer  his  implements  of  agriculture, 
the  banker  and  the  merchant  his  account  books.  Every  natural  object  to  which 
awe  or  mystery  attaches,  serves  to  call  forth  a  recognition  of  that  Divinity 
which  is  supposed  to  embrace  all  existence  as  infinite  space  enfolds  all  magni- 
tudes within  itself.  Much  more  must  those  superhuman  existences  be  wor- 
shiped, a  belief  in  whom  seems  instinctive  in  the  mind  of  man,  as  existing  in 
rank  upon  rank  above  us  in  the  scale  of  being. 

The  intelligent  Hindoo  does  not  identify  any  one  or  all  the  three  hundred 
and  thirty  million  deities  with  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  God.     Neither  Brahma 


*  Since  the  above  was  in  type,  the  English  newspapers  report  the  well-known 
Prof.  Monier  Williams,  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  as  saying,  in  an  address  upon  "  The 
Chief  Obstacles  to  the  Spread  of  Christianity  in  India,"  delivered  at  a  recent  mission- 
ary conference:  "Our  main  difficulty  is  in  the  nature  of  their  religion,  that  subtle 
Pantheism,  which  may  profess  to  include  Christianity  itself  as  one  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  and  does  declare  itself  to  have  been  a  true  revelation,  in  a  more  ex- 
cellent way,  long  before  Europe  had  any  revealed  religion  at  all."  The  English  Inde- 
pendent, quoting  this  sentence,  and  remarking  the  surprise  with  which  it  will  be  re- 
ceived by  ordinary  Christian  men  and  women  at  home,  adds:  "It  is  evident  that 
nothing  could  be  worse  than  to  send  out  to  India  men  who  have  no  intellectual  power 
of  appreciating  such  subtle  objections,  which  seem  to  cut  the  very  ground  from  beneath 
the  Christian  missionary's  feet." 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  9 

nor  Vishnu  nor  Siva  is  That.  The  titles  which  properly  belong  to  The  One 
Without  a  Second  are  never  applied  to  the  greatest  of  the  gods.  Ask  the  lowest 
peasant  whether  God  is  one  or  many;  his  invariable  answer  is,  God  is  one. 
But  this  is  not  at  all  inconsistent  with  his  belief  in  a  vast  multitude  of  greater 
and  lesser  deities,  all  less  divine  than  God,  but  more  divine  than  man.  With 
many  of  these  deities  we  have  no  direct  concern,  while  our  relation  to  others 
of  them  is  most  direct  and  important.  Practically,  these  deities  have  absorbed 
the  worship  and  service  of  all  India.  Some  men  worship  one,  others  another. 
Some  parts  of  India  are  chiefly  worshipers  of  Vishnu  under  his  many  incar- 
nations and  manifestations ;  in  other  parts  the  worship  of  Siva  predominates. 
Different  castes  and  tribes  addict  themselves  to  different  deities.  But  no  tem- 
ple is  reared  to  the  Great  Supreme  ;  no  rites  are  performed  in  His  honor  ;  God 
is  an  abstract  conception,  and  not  a  living  reality.  His  glory  they  have  given 
to  them  that  are  no  gods. 

When  you  charge  upon  a  Hindoo  the  sin  and  folly  of  worshiping  these 
inferior  deities,  while  he  neglects  the  God  whom  he  himself  acknowledges  as 
the  One  Supreme,  he  tells  you  at  once  that  since  God  is  all,  all  worship  is  paid 
to  God,  perhaps  quoting  some  ancient  verse  like  the  following  : 

"  Into  the  bosom  of  the  one  great  sea, 
Flow  streams  that  come  from  hills  on  every  side. 
Their  names  are  various  as  their  springs. 
And  thus  in  every  land  do  men  bow  down 
To  one  great  God,  though  known  by  many  names." 

Or,  he  will  defend  himself  by  a  plausible  illustration:  "Sir,  I  am  a  poor 
man  from  yonder  village.  If  I  have  a  tax  to  pay  the  Government,  should  I 
insist  on  carrying  my  money  to  our  Queen  who  lives  across  the  sea ;  and  if  I 
did  so,  would  she  see  me  or  receive  it  at  my  hand  ?  No  more  can  I  take  it 
to  the  Governor-General  in  his  vice-regal  palace  in  Calcutta.  I  have  to  do  with 
the  village  officer  ;  and  what  I  pay  to  him,  although  he  is  a  very  inferior  officer 
of  the  Government,  is  as  truly  paid  to  the  Queen  as  though  I  laid  it  at  her 
feet." 

If  a  man,  who  does  not  accept  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God,  "believes  that 
there  are  myriads  of  existences  above  and  around  him,  who,  although  they  are 
not  God,  are  deities  to  whom  his  worship  and  service  are  due,  whose  anger 
he  has  every  reason  to  avoid  and  their  favor  to  gain,  I  do  not  know  any  logical 
process  by  which  I  can  convince  him  of  the  contrary. 

I  get  no  help  from  the  philosopher.  He  does  not  perhaps  believe  in  the 
gods  himself.  It  may  be  he  considers  himself  by  philosophical  methods  nearer 
salvation  than  they  are  ;  since  the  gods  themselves  are  bound  in  the  bondage 
of  the  unreal,  or  else  they  too  would  cease  to  suffer  the  evil  of  a  separate  ex- 
istence and  merge  in  the  divine  ocean  of  the  Infinite.  But  the  very  idolatry 
and  superstition  on  which  he  personally  looks  down,  he  regards  as  necessary 


io  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

for  the  mass  of  men.  The  common  people  can  not  attain  the  eminence  of 
philosophic  thought.  They  must  reach  after  the  deity  in  lower  methods  and 
by  lower  aids.  If  they  are  faithful  in  those  services  which  they  can  now  un- 
derstand and  render,  they  will  be  rewarded  perhaps  in  their  next  birth  by  such 
a  position  in  life  that  they  may  attain  liberation  by  the  higher  methods.  Al- 
though wonderful  stories  are  told  by  priests  and  others  of  men  in  days  past  who 
attained  immediate  salvation  by  the  practice  of  rites  that  are' still  observed,  I 
never  met  with  a  Hindoo  who  expected  that  he  could  thus  be  saved.  His 
best  hope  is  in  this  present  life  to  merit  a  future  birth  somewhat  nearer  to  the 
object  of  his  desires.  For  remember,  that  heaven  itself  is  not  liberation  or 
lull  salvation.  It  is  a  state  of  much  happiness ;  but  a  man  whose  next  trans- 
migration will  be  to  that  abode  of  happiness,  may,  by  that  very  transmigration, 
postpone  indefinitely  his  hopes  of  ultimate  liberation  and  linger  in  the  misery 
of  separation  from  God. 

In  this  connection  we  may  repeat  to  you  the  Quaternion  of  Requisites,  the 
four  qualifications  which  are  necessary  before  one  may  so  much  as  enter  upon 
the  study  of  the  higher  philosophy  of  the  Hindoos  with  any  hope  of  attaining 
salvation  thereby.     These  are  : 

i.  The  discrimination  of  the  eternal  substance  from  the  transient,  i.  e.,  a 
clear  understanding  that  God  is  the  eternal  substance  and  all  else  is  non- 
eternal. 

2.  Disregard  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  the  here  and  the  hereafter. 
By  fruits  of  the  here  we  are  to  understand  all  good  things  of  the  present  life  ; 
by  fruits  of  the  hereafter,  blessings  to  be  enjoyed  in  a  future  state,  such  as 
heaven,  or  the  rewards  due  to  meritorious  actions  done  in  this  life.  In  other 
words,  this  second  qualification  is  the  disregard  of  everything,  present  or  future, 
save  only  the  liberation  of  the  soul  from  the  bondage  of  the  unreal  and  its 
union  with  the  All-Spirit. 

3.  The  possession  of  the  six  mental  attitudes  which  befit  the  seeker  after 
liberation  ;  as  follows  : 

1  st.  Tranquillity,  the  restraining  of  the  thoughts  and  desires  from  everything 
save  God.  2d.  Self-restraint,  the  complete  mastery  of  the  body  and  its 
senses,  so  that  they  shall  not  interfere  with  the  concentration  of  the  whole 
being  upon  God.  3d.  Quiescence,  the  entire  refraining  from  all  other  duties 
save  those  involved  in  this  concentration,  as,  for  example,  duties  owing  to  a 
parent  by  the  child,  or  a  husband  to  a  wife,  or  a  servant  to  his  employer.  This 
requirement  alone  shuts  the  seeker  after  God  off  from  every  human  relation- 
ship and  absolves  him  from  every  tie  to  kindred  or  society.  4th.  Endurance, 
of  hunger  and  thirst,  cold  and  heat,  watching,  and  whatever  other  suffering  will 
be  the  means  of  subduing  the  spirit  and  mortifying  the  flesh.  5th.  Contempla- 
tion, the  fixing  the  whole  soul  in  meditation  upon  God  and  the  study  of  truth. 
6th.  Faith,  the  implicit  reception  of  the  teachings  of  the  spiritual  guide  and 
preceptor. 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  II 

4.  That  overmastering  desire  for  liberation,  which  alone  can  lead  to  and 
sustain  in  this  study  and  self-denial. 

Such  are  the  qualifications  required,  at  least  in  theory,  of  him  who  would 
attain  salvation  by  means  of  philosophy.  They  will  convince  us  how  impossi- 
ble it  appears  to  the  ordinary  Hindoo  that  he  should  reach  his  goal  by  this 
lofty  path.  Nothing  is  left  for  him  but  to  avail  himself  of  the  gods  and  their 
worship,  and  get  from  them  what  help  he  can. 

Of  the  popular  idolatry  and  superstitions  of  the  Hindoos  I  need  not  speak 
at  length.  Its  main  features  are  described  in  many  books  and  are  not  un- 
familiar to  you.  Nor  could  it  be  put  into  any  systematic  form.  Every  man 
may  rind,  in  the  vast  number  of  the  gods  and  their  varying  forms  of  worship, 
what  suits  him  best.  He  may  change  from  one  to  another  as  he  pleases.  No 
one  aspect  of  Hindoo  popular  religion  represents  more  than  a  single  phase  of 
it.  It  is  multiform  to  the  last  degree.  The  very  sacred  books  are  at  variance 
among  themselves.  Modern  Hindooism  is  a  thousand  religions  massed  in 
one,  with  ample  room  for  unnumbered  superstitions,  old  and  new,  all  of  which 
are  orthodox  to  all  who  accept  them  and  tolerated  by  all  the  rest* 

Of  the  enormities  of  Hindooism  in  some  of  its  developments  I  dare  not 
speak.  No  ingenuous  Hindoo  can  refer  to  them  without  a  blush  of  shame, 
though  he  is  powerless  to  prevent  them.  But  I  must  not  fail  to  remind  you 
that  some  such  union  of  specious  pantheistic  philosophy  with  degrading  idola- 
try and  dark  superstition,  with  all  the  fearful  moral  evil  accompanying  them — 
philosophy  for  the  few,  superstition  for  the  many — would  almost  certainly  be 
the  religious  condition  of  the  Christian  world  to-day,  were  it  not  for  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  India,  China,  and  Japan  represent  to  us  at  present  the  best  that 
man  can  do  for  himself  without  a  revelation  from  God.      The  condition  of 


*  "  In  India,"  says  the  late  Rev.  J.  Wilson,  D.D.,  so  well  known  in  connection  with 
the  Scotch  missions  in  Bombay,  "  we  have  to  deal  with  elaborated  systems  of  faith  and 
practice  which  are  allied,  and  intimately  allied,  with  every  principle  congenial  to  the 
natural  depravity  of  man,  and  suited  to  every  variety  of  temperament  and  condition  of 
life.  Hindooism,  though  it  has  gone  through  many  changes,  is  still  the  grandest  em- 
bodiment of  Gentile  error.  It  is  at  once  physiolatrous  in  its  main  aspects,  and  fetish 
in  its  individual  recognitions  of  particular  objects  of  power  for  good  or  evil  ;  polythe- 
istic and  pantheistic  ;  idolatrous  and  ceremonious,  yet  spiritual  ;  authoritative  and  tra- 
ditional, yet  inventive  and  accommodative.  The  lower  classes  of  society  it  leaves  in 
the  depths  of  ignorance  and  darkness,  without  making  any  attempt  to  promote  their 
elevation.  The  indolent  and  inane  succumbing  to  its  trying  climate,  it  leaves  in  un- 
disturbed repose.  To  the  curious  and  inquisitive  it  furnishes,  in  its  remarkable  schools 
of  philosophy,  systems  of  combined  physics  and  metaphysics,  at  once  empirical  and 
deductive  ;  and  which  exercise  and  yet  weaken  and  pervert  the  intellectual  faculties, 
and  that  without  any  clear  recognition  of  moral  obligation  and  duty  to  God  or  man. 
To  the  lovers  of  excitement  and  amusement,  it  furnishes  a  boundless  store  of  myths, 
fables,  and  fictions.  To  the  active  and  superstitious,  it  affords  a  never-ending  round 
of  foolish  and  frivolous  ceremonies,  which  engross  most  of  their  time  and  energies. 
To  the  rich,  wealthy,  and  powerful,  it  literally  promises  and  sells  pleasure  in  this  world. 


12  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

Greece  and  Rome  was  no  better;  indeed,  at  the  time  when  Christianity  was 
making  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  Empire,  was  probably  worse  than  that  of 
India  now.  That  we  have  a  truer  philosophy,  a  higher  morality,  a  religion  that 
does  unite  the  soul  to  God  and  give  it  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ,  we 
owe  to  the  written  Word  of  God  entrusted  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth. 

In  connection  with  what  has  been  said  of  the  popular  philosophy  and  idola- 
try of  India,  I  must  not  omit  to  name  that  system  of  caste  which  guards  Hin- 
dooism on  the  social  side  from  change.  Not  only  are  there  the  four  great 
castes  with  which  all  are  familiar — the  Brahmin  caste,  the  Soldier  caste,  the 
Merchant  caste,  the  Laborer  caste.  These  are  almost  infinitesimally  divided 
and  subdivided — each  subdivision  virtually  a  caste  in  itself.*  And,  outside 
the  four  castes,  the  very  Pariahs  have  their  distinctions,  which  they  hold  with 
equal  tenacity.  Nor  is  the  distinction,  so  far  at  least  as  belongs  to  the  main 
caste  divisions,  an  arbitrary  one.  The  Brahmin  and  the  Sudra  live  side  by  side, 
like  the  trout  and  the  minnow  in  a  brook.  They  are  both  fish,  but  of  different 
species.  They  may  swim  in  the  same  water  and  eat  the  same  kind  of  food,  but 
the  minnow  can  never  by  an  possibility  become  a  trout,  nor  the  trout  a  min- 
now. No  more  could  the  Sudra  become  a  Brahmin,  or  the  Brahmin  a  Sudra. 
Hindoo  society  is  thus  in  all  relations,  except  those  of  business  and  trade,  a 
series  of  narrow  strata  laid  over  one  another  with  the  immovability  of  the  strata 
of  rock  in  a  mountain.  They  touch  at  the  surface  only  ;  and  each  caste  is  im- 
permeable by  members  of  any  other.  One  effect  of  caste  is  to  crush  out  in- 
dividuality— to  limit  the  intimate  relationships  of  life  to  a  narrow  social  circle, 
and  compel  the  individual  to  remain  forever  in  that  narrow  circle,  subordinat- 


with  the  expectancy  of  its  continuance  in  those  which  are  hoped  will  come.  Those 
who  love  to  rove,  it  sends  away  on  distant  journeys  and  pilgrimages.  Those  who  are 
morbid  and  melancholy,  it  settles  on  the  hill  of  ashes.  Those  who  are  disgusted  with 
this  world,  it  points  to  the  wilderness.  Those  who  are  tired  of  life.it  directs  to  the 
uneral  pile,  the  idol  car,  or  the  lofty  precipice.  To  those  who  are  afraid  of  sin,  it  pre- 
scribes easy  and  frivolous  penances,  or  directs  to  the  sacred  lake  or  river,  in  which 
they  may  be  cleansed  from  all  pollution.  Those  who  need  a  Mediator,  it  commends 
to  the  Guru,  who  will  supply  all  deficiencies  and  answer  all  demands.  To  those  who 
are  afraid  of  death,  it  gives  the  hope  of  future  births,  which  may  be  either  in  a  rising 
or  a  descending  scale.  Those  who  shrink  from  the  view  of  these  repeated  births  in 
human  and  infra-human  forms,  it  directs  to  the  absorption  of  the  Vedantist,  or  the 
Nirvana,  the  totally  unconscious  existence  or  absolute  extinction  of  the  soul  of  the 
Buddhist  or  the  Jaina.  Need  we  wonder  that  Hindooism  has  had  its  millions  of 
votaries,  and  that,  with  some  conspicuous  losses,  it  has  retained  them  for  thousands  of 
years,  up  to  the  present  day?" 

*  The  census  of  the  Hindoo  State  of  Travancore  has  been  completed  within  a  few 
months — the  first  census  ever  taken  by  a  native  Indian  Government.  It  contains  the 
statistics  of  420  different  castes,  in  a  country  somewhat  less  in  size  than  the  State  of  New 
Jersey. 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  13 

ing  the  whole  round  of  his  thought  and  action  to  the  will  of  his  caste  fellows. 
In  all  considerable  matters  no  man  thinks  of  deciding  for  himself.  He  must 
do  as  his  fellows.  He  is  born  into  a  society  from  which  he  can  escape  only  by 
ostracism  ;  and  if  ostracized,  is  thenceforth  absolutely  alone,  for  no  caste  will 
receive  him.  A  Pariah  might  perhaps  take  pity  on  a  wandering  dog,  but  the 
highest  Brahmin  ejected  from  his  caste  could  no  more  enter  the  caste  of  that 
Pariah  than  the  Pariah  could  be  admitted  to  that  of  the  Brahmin. 

This  social  tie  binds  Hindoo  society  in  chains  of  iron,  and  completes  the 
hold  which  Hindooism  has  upon  India.  Of  the  three  obstacles  to  Christianity 
which  we  have  mentioned,  pantheism  is  undoubtedly  the  central  and  chief. 
We  may  liken  caste  to  the  outworks  of  a  fort,  designed  to  keep  the  invader 
from  its  walls.  The  idolatry  and  superstition  of  the  country  would  represent 
those  walls  thus  guarded.  While  the  pantheistic  thought,  informing  the  whole, 
and  giving  unity,  coherence,  and  resisting  strength  to  both  the  others,  is  the 
impregnable  citadel  within.  I  say  impregnable,  because  once  and  again  ear- 
nest and  sincere  reformers  have  arisen  within  Hindooism.  Almost  always  they 
have  discarded  caste,  and  for  the  most  part  rejected  idolatry.  But  never  yet 
has  Hindoo  reform  succeeded  in  shaking  off  the  subtle  spell  of  pantheistic 
thought,  and  consequently  idolatry  and  caste  have  gradually  regained  their 
hold  and  defeated  each  reform.  Christianity,  and  this  alone,  can  supplant 
pantheism,  intrenched,  as  it  is,  in  such  a  vast  system  of  popular  superstitions, 
and  guarded  so  closely  by  caste.  But  Christianity  has  never  yet  met  a  foe 
more  completely  defended,  more  difficult  of  successful  attack. 

It  has  been  our  endeavor  in  the  preceding  paragraphs  to  describe  the  oppo- 
sition which  Hindooism  presents  to  Christianity,  as  a  system  of  philosophic 
thought  and  a  congeries  of  popular  superstitions,  intrenched  in  characteristic 
social  institutions  peculiarly  hostile  to  change.  In  meeting  this  opposition, 
Christianity  itself  labors  under  serious  disadvantages,  which  must  be  briefly 
indicated  as  essential  to  an  adequate  idea  of  the  conflict  of  the  two  religions. 

And,  first,  it  must  be  remembered  that  our  Protestant  Christianity  was  not 
first  introduced  into  India  by  men  of  holy  and  consecrated  life.  Long  before 
missionaries  were  sent,  Christianity  was  presented  to  the  Hindoo  mind  by  the 
horde  of  traders,  soldiers,  adventurers,  who  sought  their  fortunes  in  India. 
The  armies  of  Clive  and  Hastings,  the  factors  of  the  East  India  Company,  the 
unprincipled  adventurers  who  escaped  to  the  Indies  from  scenes  of  violence  in 
Europe,  or  sought  there  a  field  of  gain,  were  poor  representatives  of  the  relig- 
ion of  Jesus  Christ.  Yet  the  first  impressions  of  Christianity  made  upon  the 
Hindoo  mind  were  made  by  them.  Except  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries 
in  Southern  India,  and  the  effete  Syrian  Christians  of  the  Malabar  coast,  the 
only  Christians  seen  or  known  in  India  for  an  hundred  and  fifty  years  were 
these  men.  It  was  inevitable  that  Christianity  should  appear  to  the  people  of 
the  country  as  it  was  set  forth  in  their  lives,  and  that  it  Should  be  associated 


14  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

with  violence  and  chicanery,  rapacity  and  insolence,  drunkenness  and  passion. 
The  impression  thus  made  upon  the  people,  and  deepened  by  the  history  of 
more  than  a  century  of  aggression  and  conquest,  was  entirely  false,  but  one 
which  clung  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  has  not  even  yet  passed  entirely 
away.  Over  great  tracts  of  country  as  yet  but  little  affected  by  education  or 
personal  contact  with  real  Christians,  the  Christian  religion  is  regarded  as 
sanctioning  all  manner  of  evil  and  leading  to  all  kinds  of  crime.  Perhaps  two- 
thirds  of  the  Hindoo  races  still  regard  the  two  distinctive  features  of  Chris- 
tianity as  eating  beef  and  drinking  brandy.  Such  prejudices  are  deep-rooted 
and  exceedingly  hard  to  remove.  They  constitute  a  real  hinderance  to  the 
spread  of  Christianity,  on  which  lies  the  burthen  of  proving  the  popular  concep- 
tion wrong,  and  demonstrating  itself  by  living  examples  a  pure  and  holy  faith. 
Besides  this  erroneous,  but  under  the  circumstances  not  unnatural,  judgment 
of  Christianity,  it  is  quite  impossible  for  any  considerable  number  of  Chris- 
tians to  live  in  India  and  not  shock  deeply  the  prejudices  of  the  Hindoos. 
Reference  has  just  been  made  to  eating  beef.  To  the  Hindoo  mind  it  is  a 
great  sin  to  destroy  any  animal  life,  and  especially  the  life  of  that  most  sacred 
of  all  animals,  the  cow.  According  to  most  Hindoo  codes  of  law,  it  is  a  greater 
crime  to  kill  a  cow  than  to  kill  a  man.  It  would  be  possible  for  the  mission- 
ary to  accommodate  himself  to  this  prejudice,  and  abstain  from  animal  food  at 
considerable  expense  to  his  health  and  strength,  but  this  would  not  avail  while 
all  about  him  soldiers,  civilians,  planters  by  hundreds  are  pursuing  an  opposite 
course.  He  can  denounce  intemperance,  but  has  no  ground  for  denouncing 
the  use  of  beef  and  mutton.  Or  take  another  illustration  :  All  over  India  the 
very  necessary,  but  unsavory,  office  of  the  public  and  private  scavenger  is  given 
to  the  sweeper  caste,  which  is  naturally  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  social  scale. 
With  his  exaggerated  notions  of  personal  cleanliness  and  purity,  no  Hindoo 
outside  of  the  sweeper  caste  could  touch  so  much  as  the  clothes  of  one  of 
them  without  incurring  ceremonial  defilement  ;  and  to  receive  food  from  their 
hands  would  be  worse  than  death.  A  certain  mission  in  Northern  India  grew 
up  in  connection  with  an  orphanage,  in  which  were  gathered  a  large  number  of 
children  made  orphans  during  a  terrible  famine  which  desolated  the  country 
many  years  ago.  Perhaps  the  missionaries  were  not  aware  of  the  strength  of 
this  prejudice  ;  but  whatever  the  reason  may  have  been,  the  persons  whom 
they  first  employed  to  feed  these  children  were  of  the  sweeper  caste,  and  the 
impression  made  upon  the  whole  community  in  which  that  orphanage  and  mis- 
sion were  situated,  was  that  the  Christians  were  entirely  dead  to  any  sense  of 
propriety  or  decency.  Matters  like  these  are  entirely  trivial  when  viewed  from 
our  standpoint,  but  from  that  of  the  Hindoo  they  are  of  great  importance. 
Doubtless  in  many  particular  cases  such  prejudices  may  be  avoided,  but  with- 
out becoming  thorough  Hindoos  it  is  inevitable  that  we  should  be  often  shock- 
ing their  sense  of  propriety  and  enlisting  many  of  their  unreasonable  prejudices 
against  Christianity. 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  15 

The  cause  of  Christianity  in  India  must  also  sustain  a  considerable  amount 
of  political  opprobrium  as  the  religion  of  the  government  which  has  displaced 
the  native  dynasties,  changed  the  ancient  laws  and  customs,  and  holds  the 
country  in  its  possession  by  right  of  conquest.  Not  that  the  mass  of  the  people 
of  India  hate  the  British  government,  or  actively  desire  its  overthrow.  But  an 
alien  government  can  never  be  a  popular  one.  And  although  the  impartial 
observer  will  gladly  testify  that  never  in  all  history  has  a  nation  governed  a 
vast  and  distant  dependency  so  wisely  and  well  as  India  has  been  governed  for 
the  last  half  century,  yet  it  must  be  said  that  the  people  of  the  country  do  not 
love  the  government  or  its  administrators,  and  that  if  the  British  forces  who 
garrison  its  forts  and  overawe  the  great  native  princes  were  withdrawn  from 
India,  popular  risings  would  soon  repeat  in  all  parts  of  the  country  the  scenes 
of  the  Sepoy  mutiny.  To  the  religion  of  this  alien  government  is  opposed 
whatever  of  patriotism  the  Hindoo  feels.  Hindooism  is  not  a  religion  accepted 
from  without,  but  developed  from  within.  Its  saints  and  heroes  are  national, 
its  institutions  are  identified  with  all  the  past  glory  of  the  country  and  race. 
To  give  up  these  and  accept  the  religion  and  institutions  of  the  conqueror 
seems  to  the  Hindoo  to  be  treason  to  his  native  land. 

While  Christianity  thus  suffers  a  disadvantage  from  its  being  the  religion  of 
the  present  government  of  India,  the  influence  of  that  government  is  not,  on 
the  whole,  favorable  to  the  missionary  enterprise.  The  Christian  missionary 
has,  indeed,  under  the  British  government,  the  great  advantage  of  protection 
to  life  and  property  while  engaged  in  his  work.  The  strong  arm  of  the  law 
protects  him  from  violence,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  protects  the  native  con- 
verts ;  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  in  parts  of  India  the  law,  as  inter- 
preted by  British  judges,  is  an  engine  of  cruelty  and  injustice  as  applied  to 
converts  from  Hindooism  to  Christianity.  The  position  of  the  government 
with  reference  to  the  different  religions  is  one  of  considerable  delicacy,  and 
brings  forward  many  difficult  questions.  If  administered  always  by  wise  and 
truly  Christian  statesmen,  it  could  be  of  great  assistance  in  the  evangelization 
of  the  country.  Many  of  the  ablest  Indian  officials  have,  without  overstepping 
the  limits  of  toleration  for  all  religions,  given  their  countenance  to  all  wise 
efforts  to  bring  the  truth  to  bear  upon  the  people.  Religious  neutrality  is  one 
thing,  and  indifference  to  all  religion  is  quite  another.  And  it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  present  government  of  India,  while  justly  professing  to  accord  equal 
rights  to  Hindoos,  Mohammedans,  and  Christians  in  the  practice  of  their  sev- 
eral religions,  should  yet,  upon  the  whole,  throw  the  preponderance  of  its  in- 
fluence against  the  Christianization  of  the  country. 

Mission  work  is  further  complicated  by  the  division  of  India  into  so  many 
different  races,  with  distinct  languages  and  varying  race  characteristics.  India 
is  not  one  country,  but  many.  A  continent,  equal  in  geographical  extent  to 
all  Europe,  outside  of  Russia,  it  is  even  more  divided  than  Europe  into  na- 
tionalities.    The  races  of  the  north  are  as  different  from   those  of   the  South 


1 6  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

as  the  Germans  from  the  Spanish  or  Italians.  The  Hindooism  of  Rajpoo- 
tana  is  no  more  like  that  of  Travancore  than  Greek  Christianity  is  like  Roman 
Catholicism.  The  languages  of  North  India  are  cognate.  So  are  those  of 
South  India.  But  they  constitute  two  distinct  classes  of  language  ;  and  the 
various  languages  of  the  aboriginal  races  of  Central  India  are  formed  upon  a 
conception  totally  distinct  from  that  of  either  of  the  other  classes.  No  man 
can  be  a  missionary  to  India  at  large,  but  only  to  that  part  of  India  to  which 
he  may  be  sent.  Languages  learned  in  one  part  of  India  are  useless  in  others. 
Methods  of  missionary  labors  useful  in  one  district  may  not  prove  so  in  others. 
Instead  of  one  translation  of  the  Word  of  God,  at  least  fifteen  or  twenty  must 
be  made  and  printed.*  So  of  the  entire  series  of  books  and  tracts,  controversial, 
and  explanatory  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  text-books  used  in  all  ver- 
nacular education.  That  is  to  say,  in  the  one  department  of  literary  work,  in- 
cluding the  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  many  times  the  effort  is  required  for 
India  which  would  be  necessary  if  one  language  were  used. 

It  follows  partly  from  this  diversity  of  race,  language,  and  circumstance  in 
India,  and  partly  from  the  divisions  of  Christians  themselves  in  their  different 
nationalities  and  denominations,  that  there  has  been  less  of  unity  in  missionary 
effort  than  is  necessary  to  secure  the  highest  results.  Not  that  different  denom- 
inations have  interfered  with  or  worked  against  each  other.  In  spite  of 
occasional  clashing,  we  may  say  that  in  general  the  different  missions  have 
worked  together  in  harmony  and  with  Christian  co-operation.  But  these 
Christian  workers,  all  too  few,  some  British,  others  German,  others  American, 
some  representing  the  Lutheran  doctrine  and  polity,  others  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England  with  its  liturgy  and  Episcopal  government ;  others  Scotch, 
Irish,  or  American  Presbyterians,  and  still  others  English  Baptists  or  American 
Methodists,  all  earnest  in  their  own  peculiar  beliefs  and  methods  of  working, 
are  necessarily  much  separated  from  one  another  and  lose  the  advantages 
which  arise  from  unity  of  organization.    The  missionary  body  is  said  at  present 


*A  recent  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Rome's  Relation  to  the  Bible,"  issued  by  the  Calcutta 
Bible  Society,  contains  a  Historical  Table  of  Translations  of  the  Scriptures  by  Protestants 
for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  India.  In  this  table,  which  does  not  profess  to  be  exhaust- 
ive, a  list  is  given  of  versions  of  the  Scriptures,  either  in  whole  or  part,  made  into  no 
less  than  sixty-three  different  languages  and  dialects.  In  eighteen  of  these  languages 
the  entire  Bible  has  been  translated  and  published.  In  twenty-six  more  the  entire  New 
Testament  and  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  have  been  issued.  In  the  remaining  languages 
portions  of  the  New  Testament,  and  occasionally  of  the  Old  Testament,  have  appeared, 
but  neither  Testament  complete.  Some  of  the  sixty-three  languages  have  been  reduced 
to  writing  by  the  missionaries.  In  several  of  them  the  translations  of  the  Scriptures 
have  been  carefully  revised  again  and  again.  The  whole  represents  an  amount  of  labor 
on  the  part  of  Indian  missionaries,  of  which,  perhaps,  few  of  the  warmest  friends  of 
missions  are  aware. 

It  may  be  added  that  Romish  versions  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  field  covered  by  these 
Protestant  versions,  are  oniy  two,  viz. :  the  New  Testament,  in  Hindustani,  Patna, 
1864  ;  and  The  Four  Gospels  and  Acts  in  Tamil,  Pondicherry,  1857. 


Christianity  and  Hindooism,  1 7 

to  number  about  six  hundred  men.  Of  these  one-sixth  are  probably  always 
absent  on  furlough  or  laid  aside  by  ill-health,  leaving  five  hundred  in  active 
service.  This  number  of  missionaries  scattered  up  and  down  over  a  region  of 
country  as  large  as  all  Europe  outside  of  Russia,  holding  in  any  considerable 
force  only  a  few  great  cities,  separated  from  each  other  not  only  by  geograph- 
ical distance,  but  also  by  the  difference  of  race  and  language  between  those 
among  whom  they  labor,  each  particular  mission  acting  only  on  its  own  plan 
and  method,  without  reference  to  other  missions  near  or  far,  are  certainly 
working  at  a  disadvantage  as  compared  with  the  same  number  of  men  under 
one  general  supervision,  carrying  out  one  set  of  ideas  and  each  supporting  the 
other  in  all  details  of  their  work. 

Such  is  the  opposition  of  Hindooism  to  Christianity,  and  such  some  of  the 
disadvantages  under  which  the  missionary  enterprise  must  be  carried  on  in 
India.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  Protestant  missions  had 
scarcely  established  a  foothold,  and  were  still  prohibited  in  the  dominions 
under  control  of  the  East  India  Company.  Twenty-five  years  later  all  India 
was  open  for  missionary  efforts,  and  the  churches  of  Europe  and  America  were 
beginning  to  enter  it  in  force.  Each  following  decade  has  seen  new  ground 
occupied,  new  missions  opened.  The  ten  years  between  1835  and  1845  saw 
our  Presbyterian  missions  established,  although  our  missionary  stations  were 
much  fewer  then  than  now.  The  Sepoy  mutiny  in  1857  marks  an  era  in  In- 
dian history.  The  attention  of  the  Christian  world  was  fixed  upon  India  with 
special  interest.  Old  missions  were  strengthened,  and  important  new  ones 
begun.  Upon  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  a  half  century  of  Christian  effort 
has  been  expended  upon  India,  during  which  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  five 
or  six  hundred  missionaries  have  been  working  there,  assisted  by  many  earnest 
Christian  men  in  the  civil  and  military  service  of  the  British  government,  and 
by  many  native  Christians  whom  God  has  raised  up  as  teachers  and  preachers 
from  among  the  converts  of  the  missions. 

Let  us  see  what  results  have  been  accomplished  by  these  agencies.  Over 
two-thirds  of  India  there  stretches  a  network  of  mission  stations,  occupying  all 
the  prominent  cities  and  many  of  the  larger  towns.  The  remaining  third, 
which  is  partly  difficult  of  access  and  partly  territory  under  the  dominion  of 
native  princes  who  are  not  favorable  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  has 
scarcely  been  touched,  although  within  the  last  few  years  several  very  promis- 
ing new  stations  have  been  taken  up  by  our  own  and  other  missionary  organ- 
izations. But  go  where  you  will,  along  any  of  the  great  lines  of  travel  through- 
out India,  you  will  find  in  every  place  of  importance  the  mission  station,  a 
center  of  light  and  evangelization,  where  the  church  and  the  school,  if  not  also 
the  printing-press,  the  hospital,  the  orphanage,  mark  the  beneficent  enterprises 
of  Christianity,  and  Christian  men  and  women  are  devoting  themselves  in  every 
way  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  people. 


iS  Christianity  and  Hindooisnt. 

In  these  great  centers  of  influence,  the  Gospel  has  been  faithfully  preached 
and  taught  in  the  schools,  until  a  large  number  of  people  are  familiar  with  the 
outlines  of  saving  truth.  And  from  these  centers  the  missionary  and  his  na- 
tive helpers  have  gone  over  wider  and  wider  circles  proclaiming  their  heavenly 
message  to  multitudes  of  hearers.  Much  of  this  preaching  is  necessarily  frag- 
mentary and  imperfect,  but  it  awakens  attention,  removes  prejudice,  and  pre- 
pares the  way  for  further  instruction. 

In  all  the  principal  languages  of  the  country  the  Word  of  God  has  been 
translated  and  widely  circulated,  with  many  other  books  and  tracts,  suited  to 
different  ages  and  classes  of  readers.  Formerly  these  were  given  away  to  all 
who  could  be  induced  to  receive  them.  But  of  late  years  the  demand  has  s6 
increased  that  it  is  now  almost  the  universal  practice  to  sell  our  Christian  pub- 
lications. The  missionary  and  his  assistants  sell  them  in  the  streets  and  at  the 
religious  and  other  gatherings  of  the  people ;  the  colporteurs  sell  them  in  the 
railway  stations  and  from  village  to  village  ;  and  in  some  parts  of  India  the 
very  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan  booksellers  have  begun  to  keep  them  in  their 
stock,  merely  for  the  profit  which  they  can  make  by  selling  them. 

Missionary  schools  in  India,  from  the  village  school  where  only  the  simpler 
branches  are  taught  in  the  vernacular,  to  the  English  high- schools  and  col- 
leges in  the  great  cities,  have  played  a  most  important  part  and  are  still  very 
prominent  in  the  educational  work  which  has  done  so  much  to  awaken  thought 
and  stimulate  progress  in  that  country.  In  all  these  schools  and  colleges  the 
great  aim  has  been  to  communicate  religious  instruction.  And,  apart  from  the 
number  of  actual  conversions,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  influence  which 
they  have  exerted  upon  the  educated  classes  of  Hindoo  society.  Among  all 
who  have  come  under  these  influences  the  power  of  Hindooism  is  greatly 
weakened,  and  many  persons  have  been  deeply  impressed  by  Christian  truth 
who  have  not  been  able  to  make  the  sacrifice  involved  in  its  public  acceptance. 

The  number  of  persons  gathered  together  in  Christian  churches  as  the  direct 
fruits  of  Protestant  missions  in  India  is  now  upwards  of  300,000,  without  count- 
ing those  who  have  fallen  asleep.  It  would  be  too  much  to  claim  all  of  these 
as  truly  godly,  Christ-like  men.  But  in  general  the  native  Christian  com- 
munity is  fully  deserving  of  our  confidence.  It  has  been  tried  by  perrecution, 
and  has  added  Hindoo  names  to  the  roll  of  the  Christian  martyrs.  It  has 
yielded  a  large  proportion  of  its  members  to  the  service  of  Christ  in  earnest 
and  faithful  ministry  among  their  fellow-countrymen.  It  is  becoming  more 
and  more,  not  only  self-supporting,  but  aggressive.  The  example  of  many  of 
these  native  brethren  is  doing  more  to  convince  and  attract  the  heathen  among 
whom  they  live  than  any  mere  preaching  could  do.  The  Christian  community, 
as  a  whole,  is  steadily  rising  in  the  popular  esteem  ;  and,  scattered  as  it  is 
among  so  many  provinces  of  India,  it  forms  the  nucleus  everywhere  of  the 
greater  ingatherings  for  which  we  labor  and  hope. 

Great  attention  is  being  paid  in  all  parts  of  India  to  the  perfecting  of  those 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  19 

ecclesiastical  organizations  by  which  the  power  of  the  Christian  community 
shall  be  brought  to  bear  most  efficiently  upon  the  mass  of  heathenism  about  it, 
and  upon  the  training  of  those  pastors  and  evangelists  who  shall  instruct  the 
churches  and  carry  the  Gospel  in  their  preaching  and  teaching  far  beyond  the 
limits  which  can  be  reached  by  the  foreign  missionary.  The  successes  of  the 
future  will  largely  depend  upon  the  native  ministry ;  and  God  is  giving  to  His 
churches  men  who  are  qualified  by  gifts  of  nature  and  of  grace  to  assume  the 
great  responsibilities  thus  laid  upon  them. 

In  all  these  respects,  missionaries  are  able  to  report  satisfactory  and  gratify- 
ing progress,  and  this  not  in  certain  specially  favored  localities,  but  in  all 
parts  of  the  wide  field,  not  in  a  single  department,  but  in  all  departments  of 
missionary  effort.  This  progress  is  uniform  and  steady.  Whatever  of  gain  is 
made  is  retained,  and  each  fresh  advance  furnishes  vantage  ground  for  further 
success.  There  are  probably  no  five  hundred  Christian  ministers  in  any  part 
of  the  world  upon  whom  greater  responsibilities  are  laid,  and  none  who  are 
accomplishing  more  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  than  the  men 
who  are  honored  in  holding  the  position  of  missionaries  in  India. 

But  let  us  not  receive  the  impression  that  India  will  probably  be  soon  con- 
verted to  the  faith  of  Christ.  Three  hundred  million  souls,  held  for  ages  under 
the  triple  bondage  of  pantheism,  idolatry,  and  caste,  and  loving  and  glorying 
in  that  bondage,  are  not  to  be  easily  delivered  from  it,  though  the  number  of 
Christian  workers  were  multiplied  an  hundred-fold.  All  things  are  possible 
with  God  ;  and  if  it  please  Him  to  pour  out  His  Spirit  upon  the  whole  nation 
and  raise  up  in  all  its  races  and  languages  men  of  Apostolic  gifts  and  fervor, 
we  may  see  in  a  few  years  glorious  triumphs  of  the  Gospel  on  a  greater  scale 
than  ever  before  in  human  history.  But  that  is  not  the  way  in  which  God 
usually  works,  nor  do  we  see  signs  of  any  such  unusual  successes  in  India. 
We  see  nowhere  any  general  weakening  of  Hindoo  thought  or  superstition, 
any  wide-spread  turning  toward  Christianity,  upon  the  part  of  the  mass  of  the 
people.  Christianity  must  win  its  success  in  India  by  earnest,  persevering 
work,  and  by  steady  toil  undermine  the  almost  impregnable  defenses  of  Hin- 
dooism. Your  missionaries  do  not  shrink  from  the  task  given  them  to  do,  and 
are  not  disheartened  by  the  difficulties  which  face  them.  The  work  advances. 
The  end  is  secured  by  the  promise  of  God.  Let  the  whole  Church  of  Christ 
not  withhold  their  sympathies  and  prayers. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  HINDOOISM. 

Rev.  James  Wilson,  for  many  years  connected  with  our  mission  in  India, 
sends  the  following  communication  in  reply  to  a  quotation  in  Mr.  Wynkoop's 
first  article  on  Christianity  and  Hindooism.  As  it  gives  another  view  of  the 
subject  so  strongly  presented  by  Mr.  Wynkoop,  our  readers  will  be  glad  to  see 


20  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

it,  and  especially  as  it  comes  from  one  of  the  early  missionaries  of  our  Church 
to  India  : 

I  have  just  been  reading  the  part  of  Rev.  T.  S.  Wynkoop's  lecture  on 
"  Christianity  and  Hindooism  "  in  the  number  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  for 
July,  and  the  note  respecting  the  address  of  Prof.  Williams,  of  Oxford,  on  the 
same  subject,  and  noticing  the  impression  which  it  seems  to  have  made  on  the 
mind  of  the  editor  of  the  English  Independent,  who  says:  "It  is  evident  that 
nothing  could  be  worse  than  to  send  out  to  India  men  who  have  no  intellec- 
tual power  of  appreciating  such  subtle  objections  which  seem  to  cut  the  very 
ground  from  underneath  the  Christian  missionary's  feet." 

I  have  no  doubt  but  many  of  the  readers  of  those  addresses,  in  this  country 
also,  will  take  up  the  same  impression,  unless  the  authors,  or  some  one  else  for 
them,  shall  guard  them  against  such  impression  by  reminding  them  of  the 
Saviour's  words,  "Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures,  nor  the  power  of  God." 
There  is  a  broad  substratum  of  clear,  strong  common  sense  among  the  more 
intelligent  of  the  common  people  in  India,  whose  minds  soar,  not  to  the  hazy 
regions  of  their  philosophy,  and  who  can,  after  a  while,  perceive  the  keen  edge 
with  which  the  Bible  cuts  away  the  gossamer  threads  of  such  philosophy.  I 
have  often  heard  men  of  that  class,  after  they  had  had  the  Bible  in  their  hands 
for  some  time,  still  making  no  profession  of  intention  to  become  Christians, 
address  me  thus  :  "  Sir,  this  Christian  book  of  yours  is  the  strangest  book  I  ever 
saw.  It  just  speaks  right  home  to  all  that  is  inside  of  a  man,  as  if  it  knew  all 
that  is  in  him."  And  much  more  in  the  same  strain.  Doubtless  it  is  of  great 
importance  to  the  missionary  work  that  there  should  be  a  few  men  here  and 
there  among  them  like  Mr.  Wynkoop  and  Prof.  Williams,  who  should  prepare 
themselves  to  follow  the  learned  Brahmins  through  all  the  mazes  and  plausi- 
bilities and  intricate  windings  of  their  systems  of  philosophy,  in  which  they 
have  the  wide  fields  of  the  universe  to  range  at  pleasure  without  any  fixed  prin- 
ciple or  standard  by  which  their  wildest  vagaries  can  be  tested  or  brought  to 
any  positive  bearings.  But  that  is  not  die  field  in  which  the  great  mass  of  the 
missionary  work  is  to  be  done.  The  missionary  work  is  mainly  to  be  carried 
forward  by  men  of  sincere,  earnest,  tried  piety,  well-furnished  minds,  sound 
common  sense,  and  good  capacities  to  estimate  human  character,  and  the 
fitness  of  things  in  general. 

Not  much  is  to  be  gained  by  any  man's  allowing  himself  to  be  led  out  by 
a  learned  Brahmin  into  the  wide  and  wild  fields  of  heathen  philosophy.  I, 
when  I  had  been  a  few  years  in  India,  made  a  few  experiments  in  that  line. 
But  I  soon  discovered  that  it  was  very  much  like  an  effort  to  surround  and 
corner  a  wild  and  wayward  mule  in  the  center  of  a  prairie  field  50  miles  in 
diameter,  I  could  not  approach  him  from  any  quarter  but  from  which  he 
could  escape  in  any  one  of  many  directions.  I  soon  learned  that  that  was  not 
the  place  in  which  to  pen  a  wild  and  wayward  mule,  nor  an  astute  and  trained 
Brahmin.     After  a  few  fruitless  efforts  in  that  direction,  I  learned  to  permit 


Christianity  and  Hindooism.  21 

the  Pundit  (learned  Brahmin)  to  make  his  statement  without  interruption  in 
terms  like  these  :  "God  exists  in  every  form  of  animated  being,  and  in  every- 
thing. God  is  in  you,  in  me,  in  him,  in  this  table,  this  chair,  this  stone,  in 
everything  around  us.  God  enables  me  to  lift  my  hand,  to  move  my  lips,  to 
use  my  voice.  Then  if  there  was  sin  or  wrong  in  that  fraud,  or  falsehood, 
which  you  charged  upon  me  (alluding  to  some  charge  of  the  kind  just  made),  the 
blame  does  not  rest  on  me,  but  on  Him  above  who  lives,  and  thinks,  and  speaks, 
and  acts  in  me,"  etc.  I  then  would  kindly,  but  very  earnestly,  reply  :  "  I  have 
neither  time  nor  taste  for  following  you  through  all  the  mazes  of  your  philo- 
sophical speculations,  etc.  I  will  take  my  position  just  here  :  your  own  heart 
knows  that  it  was  not  God,  but  your  own  self,  that  did  the  wrong  in  question, 
and  that  the  whole  blame  rests  on  you  alone."  In  many  cases  the  man  would 
frankly  admit  the  truth  of  the  charge,  or,  if  he  did  not,  some  of  those  present 
would  say,  "  Oh,  yes,  he  knows  very  well  that  that  is  true  ;  but  he  does  not  like 
to  own  it."  Thus  God  has  provided  a  much  shorter  and  surer  way  to  the  human 
heart  than  through  the  labyrinths  of  philosophy  and  metaphysics.  And  the 
great  mass  of  missionary  labors  lie  in  that  field. 

The  same  principle  applies  to  the  missionary  work  as  to  that  of  the  minis- 
try at  home.  It  would  not  be  a  wise  policy  to  refuse  to  introduce  any  one  into 
the  office  of  the  ministry  who  had  not  so  waded  through  the  profound  depths 
of  "  science"  as  to  be  able  to  cope  with  Tyndal  and  Darwin,  and  such  as  they, 
in  their  own  chosen  fields  of  speculation,  simply  because  the  principal  portion 
of  their  labors  lies  in  a  different  direction  ;  namely,  in  dealing  with  the  "  con- 
sciences" and  conduct  of  men  as  "sinners,"  conscious  that  they  are  sinners, 
and  in  unfolding  and  applying  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  to  their  felt  necessities, 
and  as  that  which  alone  can  point  then)  to  deliverance  from  sin  and  conduct 
them  to  the  inheritance  of  "  eternal  life "  in  a  happier  and  a  better  world. 
And  all  that  pertains  to  the  attainment  of  that  inheritance  lies  along  the  lower 
plane  of  ordinary  common  sense,  and  of  candor,  and  honesty  of  purpose,  in 
applying  the  plain  ordinary  teachings  of  the  Bible  to  the  ordinary  condition 
and  wants  of  human  life. 

The  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  and  of  human  salvation,  are  not  to  be 
sought  for  in  the  recondite  speculations  of  science.  "  It  is  not  in  heaven  that 
thou  shouldst  say,  who  shall  go  up  and  bring  it  unto  us,  that  we  may  hear  it 
and  do  it  ?  But  the  word  is  very  nigh  thee,  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart, 
that  thou  mayest  do  it"  (Deut.  xxx.  12). 

There  is  a  broad  field  of  common  sense  among  the  masses  of  the  people, 
both  in  Christian  and  in  heathen  countries.  And  that  common  sense,  in  con- 
nection with  the  consciousness  that  they  are  sinners  which  all  men  bear  about 
with  them,  is  the  element  with  which  the  missionary  abroad,  and  the  minister 
at  home,  have  chiefly  to  deal  in  the  important  field  of  their  labors. 

In  a  large  amount  of  varied  converse  which  I  had  with  nearly  every  class 
of  Hindoos  during  the  years  which  I  spent  in  India,  I  never  found  a  man  so 


22  Christianity  and  Hindooism. 

utterly  debased  in  mind  but  that  I  could  lead  him  to  see  and  feel  that  there 
is  a  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  between  truth  and  falsehood,  between 
virtue  and  vice,  and  to  feel  and  acknowledge  that  he  was  a  sinner,  i.e.,  that 
he  had  sinned  against  a  superior  being  (by  whatever  name  he  might  call  that 
superior  being),  and  that  something  must  be  done  to  propitiate  that  superior 
being.  And  here  is  the  point  at  which  we  can  begin  our  missionary  work 
among  the  heathen.  And  if  I  have  not  mistaken  the  case,  it  is  about  at  the 
same  point  that  the  same  work  has  to  be  commenced  at  home. 

Then  the  conversation  turns  on  what  is  the  character  of  that  superior  be- 
ing ;  and  what  kind  of  services  or  offerings  will  propitiate  him  ;  and  what 
sort  of  character  and  habits  must  be  cultivated  in  those  who  aspire  to  please 
him  and  enjoy  his  favor.  Here  is  the  field  in  which  the  labors  of  the  mission- 
ary abroad,  and  of  the  minister  at  home,  have  their  principal  range,  and  in 
which  their  principal  fruits  are  gathered.  For,  as  a  general  thing,  those  who 
feel  themselves  intellectually  or  pecuniarily  raised  far  above  the  masses  found  on 
this  broad  plain,  are  rarely  disposed  to  give  much  attention  to  the  concerns  of  a 
future  or  higher  life — at  least  until  they  have  run  the  pleasures  of  this  present  life 
to  the  very  utmost  verge.  It  is  not,  therefore,  of  any  great  importance,  in  ar- 
ranging efforts  for  the  salvation  of  men,  to  adopt  plans  to  suit  the  case  of  these 
elevated  classes  ;  for,  if  God  is  pleased  to  reveal  Himself  in  their  hearts, 
He  brings  down  their  lofty  notions  of  themselves  to  the  low  level  from  which  the 
masses  of  mankind  can  look  up  to  the  "Author  of  their  salvation  "  suspended 
on  a  cross. 


Date  Due 

AP  1 VS3 

m  •■  ■ 

f) 

?ffii3?n8dHindooism:  an  address 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Librar: 


MM 

1    1012  00040  1671 


>r#r 


in  mh 


